Chapter 1
Haedryn felt it, the moment the ritual worked, like a settling of his soul. There were no flashing lights, or bright bursts of magic. Even his surroundings seemed minimally changed. Slowly Haedryn stood from his cross legged position, taking only a moment to double check that his mokeskin bag and bottomless satchel bag had both come along for the ride, before following the pull in his chest.
Haedryn had anchored the ritual to his uncompleted familiar bond, and it was finally time for him to meet the great dragon he’d been dreaming of all his life. A dragon that had been waiting for him for nearly 800 years. He ducked so as to not hit his head on the rocky ceiling above him as he moved towards the cave entrance. He had performed the ritual just inside the caves north of Hogsmeade village and it seemed he had arrived in a similar cave in this world or ‘Vys’ known as Planetos, according to his many, many times great grandmother’s journal.
Learning the language that was, by all rights, his mother tongue, from a half millennia old book and dreams had been difficult, but Haedryn found satisfaction in it. His dreams had shown him the destruction, the Doom, and knowing that through him, his ancestral language lived on was a peaceful thought.
The cave entrance allowed a generous amount of sunlight to filter in and Haedryn had to squint as he exited. The lands he had left had been autumnal and brisk. But here, wherever exactly here was, was hot and humid, practically tropical. No, not practically, actually tropical, Haedryn thought as he took in the massive strangler fig and the multitude of flowering tropical ferns and trees. He suspected Sothoryos to be his location but he could also be in Yi Ti or even another place he had no idea of and had never dreamed of. His thoughts were abruptly cut off and pushed to the side when a deep rumble sounded above him and a shadow suddenly blotted out the sun.
“Terrax,” Haedryn gasped, wide eyed at the absolutely massive reptilian head that had snaked down beside him. The beast rumbled again and Haedryn could feel the building of flame in the back of Terrax’s throat. “Lykirī, Terrax, Lykirī.” The great dragon calmed and Haedryn reached out a hand gingerly to touch one of the scales on Terrax’s snout. A snapping sensation like that of a pulled elastic suddenly losing tension pulled at his soul and then soothed, the bond between rider and dragon snapping into place, a bond twice bound by the magic of his birth world as a familiar bond.
Terrax was massive, his main body the size of Hogwarts’ Great Hall when it was expanded during the Triwizard Tournament, though Haedryn was certain that if measured snout to tail he’d be nearly three times that in length. His head alone was of comparable size to five or six steam engines of the Hogwarts Express rolled together. Given his size, Haedryn suspected that when his dragon had the opportunity to extend his wings their span would stretch somewhere between four to five quidditch fields in length. Terrax’s scales were predominantly a silver white that matched the color Haedryn’s hair had turned during the events that made him the Master of Death. Terrax’s tertiary scales and wing membranes were various shades of green from pale pastel green to deep forest green, ironically the very colors of House Belaerys’ banner.
“That’s it,” Haedryn spoke softly using the words he’d learned from one of his most precious possessions. “Lykirī Terrax, Lykirī. Dohaerās, dohaerās Terrax.” Terrax seemed to hunker lower and Haedryn knew instinctively that Terrax wished for him to climb on. Fire raced through Haedryn’s veins, his excitement palpable as his adrenaline burned. He clambered up, using the various bony spikes that protruded from Terrax’s body to help him. Settling down in between two large neck spines, where the scales almost naturally seemed concave, he cast a wandless sticking charm and then Haedryn gave the order his dragon had been waiting on. “Okay Terrax, let's do this, sōvēs!” There was a moment of sheer terror as Terrax suddenly launched himself into the air and then Haedryn simply felt free. There was no Dark Lord after his life, no Lordly requirements, no one calling for him to be the Savior, or after the revelation of his status as an omega and all that meant, no grasping suitors. He was Lord Haedryn, of the Houses Black, Peverell and Slytherin, last scion in this world of the House Belaerys and he was free.
Going by the sun slowly setting to the left, Terrax was flying north, and Haedryn saw no need to direct Terrax in any other direction, allowing the dragon to choose his own flight path. That’s not to say he was simply a passive rider, directing both with shouted valyrian words and through their fledgling bond, Terrax into daring dives, twists and twirls. Free laughter bubbled through Haedryn’s chest and as Terrax dipped a wing slightly down into the ocean they were now flying over, spraying misty water over Haedryn and he threw his head back filling the air with the sound of his laughter.
“Dracarys!” Haedryn shouted as they rose up again, bathing the sky in hot flame, still laughing. As the sun completely dipped out of sight over the horizon, Haedryn started thinking about finding a place to land and make camp. There was only one problem, now that it was truly night, Haedryn had no actual idea where they were. He had long lost sight of any land as they soared over the ocean and they had twirled and turned so many times that he had no idea just how far away from land they were. He stuck out his hand palm up summoning the elder wand while also nonverbally casting a point me spell towards the nearest land.
Haedryn wondered if it was fate that the knobbed wand spun to point northwest towards what looked like a permanent cloud of mist over the ocean visible in the moonlight. Valyria, or at least what was left of the once glorious empire. Haedryn had dreamed of Valyria at its height, when it was a beautiful place, at least on the surface, similar to the wizarding world. He had also dreamed of its fall, the Doom. A result of over-ambitious self-centered idiocy and several ill-prepared rituals that had been both anchored and powered by the fourteen volcanos that stood tall around the capital. Even if he wasn’t sure what to expect, exploring his family’s ancestral lands had always been a goal.
“Elēnās, Terrax. Elēnās jelmor endia,” Haedryn directed, and Terrax obeyed, quickly banking northwest towards the cloud. Haedryn knew it wasn’t mist, or at least not entirely mist. It was also made of smoky smog made up of mostly sulfur oxides and carbon dioxide mixed with ash and the water vapor, otherwise known as mist. He threw a bubble head charm over Terrax’s massive head before putting one over his own, the sheer amount of poisonous gasses that could be in the air was actually rather impressive for a world that hadn’t moved beyond its medieval age. Thankfully the lower they flew the clearer the air became.
The island that Haedryn picked for them to land on and spend the night was a very small and dismal one. Only three, maybe four times the size of Terrax himself and entirely barren, made up of nothing more than jagged and sharp gravel sized chunks of obsidian and the occasional larger slab. Attempting to summon a fish from the ocean in order to provide himself with dinner, didn’t end well. All Haedryn got was a strange mass of what looked like jelly blubber with eyes. He tossed the creature back into the shallows and instead went digging through his mokeskin pouch, looking for one of the shelf stable camp meals Dudley had packed away. Fortunately it would seem that the strange fish didn’t bother Terrax, the great beast darting his head deep into the water and flipping the blobby fish things into the air to be roasted by a quick flame before being gulped down solid. It reminded Haedryn a little of Niko, his little Butterfly Tegu, who ate her boiled eggs solid. The ritual he’d performed didn’t allow for living beasts or creatures beyond the ritual master and so Haedryn had been forced to leave his pet behind. Blaise had happily volunteered to care for the purple mini dragon, though there had apparently been negotiations of joint custody by Dudley.
Haedryn wouldn’t be surprised if it only took a few months of that before they finally pulled their heads out of their asses and admitted to each other their feelings. Honestly he’d thought when Duds had opened up his fine dining establishment just off Windilly and hired Blaise as his Front End Host they’d get their act together but no, they were still dancing around each other and their feelings. Despite being a squib, Dudda’s Meadow swiftly became the ‘it’ place for the Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot to eat and conduct their ‘Noble’ business. Haedryn had been so very proud of his cousin, as had Aunt Petunia.
House Peverell’s regency had been left in his aunt’s capable hands, and if her unborn child was magical, he or she would inherit the noble title that came with ruling the House. Initially her divorce from Vernon had left her with little sense of self, everything she had perceived herself as had come from being a married homemaker. Meeting Xenophilius Lovegood was the best thing that had ever happened to Petunia in Haedryn’s opinion. The absent minded man was devoted to Haedryn’s aunt and had taken in Dudley and Harry as his own. Likewise little Luna had become the daughter that Petunia had always wanted.
Haedryn leaned up against Terrax’s tail. He would miss his family, but they had known as well as he did that no matter what he did the Wizarding World was always going to want a piece of him. Peace, for him at least, would never occur in the Wizarding World. There was also the matter of his straining magic searching for his familiar that only grew stronger with each year they had remained unbonded. So Haedryn at only twenty had gathered up what he could and performed the one way ritual that would send him to his familiar. Finishing up the butter chicken and rice that was amongst the meals that Dudley had cooked and sealed in containers spelled to keep everything unspoiled, Haedryn leaned back against Terrax’s tail and let his eyes flutter closed.
The sands blew harshly with the breeze and the men had wrapped fabric around their faces to keep as much of the sand away as possible as they rode, towards the tan sandstone tower that rose in the nearby distance. The vision lifted Haedryn as though he was a bird riding air currents and he rose upwards towards the sun and in that moment Haedryn knew he was a hawk. It took another moment for Haedryn to realize that he was under attack. A raven had dove from above using its sharp beak to slice at his wings. At the last second Haedryn maneuvered a rolling dive away. The raven however was nearly as agile as Haedryn. Dives and rolls, talon and beak, Haedryn the hawk and a raven with three eyes fought in an aerial battle as a battle of swords clashed below. They locked together in a suicidal dive, and somehow Haedryn knew that if they actually hit the ground, dream or not they would die should they hit the ground.
They disengaged at the last second the raven vanishing into shadow as Haedryn pushed a wave of power through his wings in its direction. As he did so Haedryn heard a wail of grief. He tucked his wings as recovered from the dive and flew nearly vertically parallel to the tower. He landed with a few centering hops in the single windowsill of the tower. Within the room a somewhat squat young woman seemed to be trying to meld herself fearfully with the stone as a young man, likely the source of the grieving wail, kneeling beside a simple cot wept over the body of a pale young woman, who was little more than a child in Haedryn’s eyes. The cry of the newly born child called the young man’s attention and Haedryn barely caught a glimpse of the gray eyed man’s face, before fingers of frost seemed to drag him away from the heat of the sandy land he was dreaming of.
The world around Haedryn warped as the cold gripped at him and he was no longer a hawk but a white fox as he tumbled into snow. The raven was back, dive-bombing him as he darted across the icy landscape, using the rocks jutting out from the snowy plain to give him a moment of respite before he was off again as the raven corrected its course and came in for another attack.
“Death to you, Wyrd Breaker!” The raven’s words were a harsh caw and Haedryn could only yelp as the sharp beak tore a wound across his white face. Haedryn snapped at the raven but missed only to yelp again when talons scraped his ear.
“I have broken nothing!” Haedryn screamed in a yipping voice.
“You have broken everything,” the harsh caw was returned as beak ripped into his back leg. Haedryn struck out to snap at the dark bird. He missed yet again as the raven flapped up to a rocky ledge, behind the bird stood a massive weirwood tree.
“If my mere presence breaks the Wyrd then the Wyrd was never meant to be in the first place!” Haedryn shouted back.
“Then your presence must be destroyed,” the raven replied and Haedryn felt the ice cracking beneath his paws but before he could plunge into the treacherous icy water beneath him, Haedryn awoke.
He gasped for breath as he practically threw himself into his bag searching for his gift from the man who had once been his school Head of House, the man whose death after Voldemort’s defeat left Harry as the last Lord of House Slytherin. The pendant he pulled out of his bag was a dark blue piece of sea glass sanded and blown to look like a snake curling around the egg like piece of white quartz hanging from a very thin titanium steel chain. Though the pendant itself was beautiful it was actually the chain that was a work of art. Each link was etched with a set of runes that strengthened occlumency. When Haedryn had begun puberty his dragon dreams had ramped up and only occlumency seemed to keep them at bay, but keeping up full shields all the time was extremely draining. Severus Snape had been quick to realize what was occurring due to his personal experience with occlumency. He had gifted the chain to Haedryn secretly, the wrapped gift appearing on Haedryn’s bed halfway through November of his third year. It wasn’t until Haedryn’s sixth year, upon seeing a very similar chain and pendant peeking out of the older man’s full robes that Haedryn realized the origins of the gift.
The moment the chain was settled on his neck Haedryn felt relief. A good portion of the weight that had unknowingly been growing on his shoulders the longer he’d been in Valyria was removed. Whomever the raven was, they were powerful, although Haedryn doubted that if he wasn’t in the highly magical nexus that was Old Valyria the raven would have been able to so thoroughly control his dreams. Haedryn was a powerful dreamer himself and although he’d had on more than one occasion had to battle within his mind, it was never against an accomplished dreamer such as the raven. Briefly he wondered if the raven had dragon blood himself, but brushed it off as not mattering at least not at this moment. Transfiguring a piece of dragonglass into a bowl and surprising himself with the ease in which the material transformed he conjured fresh water and after drinking some washed the sleep from his face.
Dawn had come long before Haedryn had awoken from his dream battle, though Terrax seemed care not, snoring a rumble that sounded like a mountain avalanche approaching. Patting his bonded’s tail, Haedryn set to making himself a bit of breakfast, filling his bowl with some dry oats and dehydrated strawberries before adding a bit of conjured water followed by a heating charm. It took a bit of an effort to get Terrax to wake up. Eventually Haedryn resorted to charming a medium sized wave to come up the shore and splash the white dragon in the face. Haedryn chuckled as the great creature sputtered and huffed, only to dive behind a spiky piece of dragonglass casting a shield charm as the dragon used his tail to attempt to soak his bonded rider.
As they flew through the morning sky towards the center of what remained of Old Valyria they stayed low, the air becoming more and more heavy with poisonous gasses the higher one went. Haedryn even strengthened their bubble head charms nervously, despite knowing his power would hold. They had passed over the remains of a city on the southern tip of the largest island but as much as Haedryn wanted to see more of his lost culture, something about the untethered sacrifice magic that permeated the entirety of the islands made him uneasy. Better he start in the heart of Old Valyria and work his way outwards. On dragonback it took only three hours to reach the city that had been the seat of one of the greatest empires that Planetos had ever known. The capital of Old Valyria was known simply as Valyria and despite the desolate cloud of smoke and smog above Haedryn and Terrax as they searched for a place to land, the once white spires, now gray with ash, still spoke of its great history. When it was at its prime each of the Forty Families that ruled had at least a tower or manse within the city.
In many areas lava still bubbled heatedly at the surface, in others the magma had hardened but not before collapsing buildings that had turned to slag beneath its heat. The city sat within the valley created by the Fourteen Flames that surrounded it. The buildings that had been on the edge of the city were long gone, but the closer that one got to the center of the once great city the more intact things were. That’s not to say that the destruction wasn’t evident. Fiery rocks launched from within the volcanoes had smashed through many towers, and the heat had slowly melted the outer surface of many others. It was easy to see how there had been no survivors of the city during the Doom. If one wasn’t killed from the initial explosive backlash of magic then they were killed by the sudden spiking of extreme heat followed by the miasma of poison. Haedryn had a definite resistance to heat and flame up to a certain degree without using overt magic but even he would have been unable to survive the very air alighting.
Terrax landed heavily in a rubble filled area between two large towers and what might have once been a three or four story statue of Arrax, the copper scales of justice the statue had once been holding tarnished green and dented where they lay upon the ground. Carefully Haedryn dismounted from his dragon, the climb down nearly taking a solid five minutes so large was his bonded. As his feet hit the ground he heard a crunch and looked down to see that his feet had turned what looked to have once been a human ribcage to near dust. He looked across the rubble filled square fighting back a sob as he realized that the gray rubble was not just made up of collapsed stone but the bones of men, women, children and dragons, long dead and gone to the folly of the Doom.
It took several deep breaths to calm himself enough that he no longer felt he was going to burst into tears. Watching every step Haedryn began to make his way across the square towards the tower that while ash coated still held a very familiar set of words carved in the stone above the door; ‘Zālagon isse se zōbrie naejot sagon se ōños’. The words of House Belaerys; ‘Burn in the Dark to Be the Light. This tower once belonged to his family, and while that family hadn’t always been great, or even good, it was still Haedryn’s.
The metal of the set of doors, looking as though it was something close to stainless steel, had melted and melded both together and with the white granite that made up the stone of the tower. With a whole lot of magic Haedryn managed to get the doors at least partially open. From behind him, Terrax gave a whining sort of rumble, and Haedryn sent as much reassurance through their bond as he could, though it was clear that his dragon wished to somehow follow.
“I’ll come back Terrax,” Haedryn reassured his beast. “Nyke'll sagon ȳgha. I’ll be safe.” Terrax rumbled again but gently laid his large head down to watch the door that Haedryn was about to slip through. He honestly looked like a loyal dog resigned to waiting for his owner to return from work. Haedryn kept himself from snorting at the thought but just barely as he entered the tower. Dust, or rather ash coated everything, and piled itself heavily in the corners and crannies of the entrance way. Of the decor that had survived, nothing was cloth and what little carved wood pieces there seemed to be, had long cracked in the dry heat if it hadn’t caught fire and turned to ashes itself. The further away from the open door he got the darker it was, and Haedryn quickly cast a Lumos Sphera to create a light ball that would follow just over his shoulder.
Even with the room brightened there was little in the entrance that held interest and Haedryn quickly moved on. His footsteps were quieted by the nearly inch thick layer of dust and ash that coated the floor, adding to the eerie quality the long empty tower already held. Still he continued on, slowly making his way through rooms and up the tower. Nearly every room had been empty of anything that Haedryn might find use in or keep as a trinket or trophy but he had found a small jewelry box, made of obsidian, or dragonglass that held a few pieces that had great value, both because of the emeralds that were inset in the precious valyrian steel, but also because they doubled what little Haedryn had that connected to his valyrian ancestors. The dragonglass box was decorated with an inlay that formed House Belaerys’ white and green crest. A dragon biting its own tail created with tiny emeralds barely larger than a needle head on a field of white created by a thin layer of white marble inlay.
The jewelry box did not end up being Haedryn’s only find that day. Halfway up the tower he found an armory. Many things had rusted away, and any leather had long since rotted but he had found a beautiful gladius style sword, its blade holding the distinctive rippling pattern of Valyrian steel. Even in old Valyria the special steel was a sign of great wealth. The steel could only be made when steel ingot was quenched with the blood of true sacrifice. Deformed True Blooded children of forty Valyrian families were the most common sacrifice, but the blood of such a sacrifice would only quench enough steel ingots to make a single greatsword. Occasionally a dragon, hatched with great deformity would be used to create valyrian steel, and rather than the usual variation of grays in the ripple the steel would take on some of the color of the sacrificed dragon’s scale. Haedryn knew however that the secrets of the steel had died with the Doom, and he would not speak of its creation to anyone. Alongside slavery and rape, killing innocents and children was never something Haedryn could condone, and the ritual could not be completed without the blood sacrifice. He supposed that only made the value of the metal even higher.
The sword, despite its dark creation, was beautiful. It was a short nearly roman in style gladius sword, and it's steel had a dark blue almost purple color in the steel ripples, showcasing that the sacrifice used to make its steel having been draconic. The leather wrapped around the grip was dry and brittle, cracking and crumbling when he gripped it. The pommel was more valyrian steel, in a scale-like pattern wrapping around a brilliantly shining piece of oval white ivory that had been coated in some sort of lacquer that kept it from cracking despite its age. Haedryn had no idea what the sword had once been named and there was no scabbard left that might have the name written on it at some point. Perhaps one day he might dream of the sword’s name but even so, it mattered not as Haedryn had decided to rename it, ōños or light in valyrian for the bright white pommel stone.
His greatest find in the city of Valyria was not in the tower that had once belonged to House Belaerys. The tower that stood tall on the other side of the ruined square belonged to an unknown family whose words; īlon jelevre perzys or We Breathe Flame was carved above the door, had another sword of valyrian steel. This one holding gray ripples and a crown pommel dotted with vibrant orange opals. It was much longer than ōños, more of a longsword in style and length. He found another building, more a manse or a small two story castle, quite close to the center of the city, though there was nothing denoting a specific family’s ownership that was in relatively decent condition. Inside Harry found several pieces of jewelry and even a delicate tiara that was surprisingly masculine in its softness. Thin valyrian steel curled in soft loops and delicate vine details that ended in spiky leaf-like motifs. Little emeralds dotted the base of every leaf spike, no bigger than Haedryn’s pinky nail while gorgeous white diamonds were clustered around the front band of the circlet, the largest in the center nearly the size of a British pound coin, with the smaller stones radiating outwards like a sunburst. But this was also not his greatest find.
Everything but the sword had already gone into Haedryn’s trusty little bag, but feeling a dash of whimsy Haedryn placed the circlet on his head with a giggle. He left it on his head while he searched the last nearly fully intact building in the city. It was here that Haedryn made his greatest discovery. While most of the underground portions of every building had been completely demolished due to the surge of molten rock from below ground and the earthquakes that had rocked the area with the eruption of the Fourteen Flames. The building’s basement was lined with thick dragonglass slabs that while brittle had a relatively high resistance and had kept the contents within the basement room safer than every other basement room in Valyria. Within the room sat several long dead braziers and on those braziers sat dragon eggs, some long hatched with only skeletal remains and egg shells to tell of their presence but a few were fully intact, five of them to be exact.
One of the eggs was dead, and going by what Haedryn’s magic was telling him, it had been dead for nearly as long as Valyria had been abandoned after the doom. The other four however still had a spark of life and their inner magics reached for him as he lifted them. He allowed his magic to lightly feed them, aware that giving them too much too fast could force them to hatch despite their weakened states, leading to malformed and sickly dragons, something the Valyrians of old had never realized. Even Haedryn only held the knowledge because of Blaise’s love for all things dragon.
Nonetheless Haedryn gathered all five, tucking them into his bag before heading up to the surface. Terrax was huffily waiting for Haedryn and used his massive head to push his rider closer to his leg, signaling that he wanted to leave. Haedryn listened. He had barely managed to scramble up Terrax’s scaly hide before the dragon was lifting off with powerful wing strokes. Sunset was swiftly approaching, Haedryn having searched empty buildings for nearly the entire day. Along with the two swords, and the five eggs, Haedryn had also looted a multitude of jewelry, mostly valyrian steel though there were a few gold pieces and a couple silver pieces, both in need of a good polish. He’d also found a few daggers of valyrian steel along with several gold coins, and pretty pieces of carved dragonglass.
Their departure was none too late. As the shadow of the setting sun began to fall over the ash-filled city something pulled itself up out of one of the free flowing rivers of magma near the edge of the city as though it had waited for the darkness. It was coal black with glowing cracks in its worm-like body. It had shriveled wings and a strange fiery mane-like feature running down the entire length of its back. It gave a piercing hissy roar and began climbing up the closest tower with suction like motions as if trying to somehow get to Haedryn and Terrax despite the fact that they were still rising further into the air. Even as they winged away Haedryn saw more of the worm like creatures crawling from the magma.
They flew north as the sun dipped down beyond the horizon leaving nothing but the moon to guide their way. The Sea of Sighs glinted beneath them and though Haedryn knew the Mantarys river that fed the sea was red and the sea by fault was a pinkish color, in the dark and moonlight however, everything was shades of gray and black. Haedryn was about to order Terrax to land only to see large shadowy beasts roaming the light colored beaches on the shoreline and instead directed Terrax further up towards the Painted Mountains.
Even once Terrax landed in what Haedryn hoped was a safe place Haedryn stayed on his pearly dragon’s back. His dragon was large enough that if Haedryn wanted to he’d be able to pitch a tent on Terrax’s back but it was both warm enough and clear enough that Haedryn didn’t bother. Instead stretched out on his beast, the warmth suffused in each scale lulling him into sleep. Once more it was the rising of the sun that woke Haedryn, that and the grumbling of his beast. As he wiped the sleep from his eyes with a yawn he wandlessly cast a refreshing charm over himself. He was hungry, not having eaten since late yesterday. It seemed Terrax had been hungry too, the bodies of several goat-like creatures with small wing-like protrusions on their ankles lying scattered around half eaten. Haedryn hadn’t even awoken when Terrax had attacked and eaten them.
Nonetheless a new day had dawned and with it came new opportunities to explore the lands of Haedryn’s ancestors. Dragon and rider spent nearly six weeks in the poison-affected ruins that was the kingdom of Old Valyria and although his pendant kept him safe from mind attacks both in his dreams and outside of them, the fallen kingdom wasn’t entirely uninhabited. The creatures that inhabited the place were wrong, malformed and broken. Even if Haedryn had been able to survive the air and in many areas the heat, without his magic he certainly wouldn’t have been able to survive many of the deadly creatures that lurked in every cranny of the land.
In the dead forests hid strange white bat creatures that seemed to be able to sense the heartbeat of anything, silencing charms were the only thing that kept them from feeding and draining Haedryn and Terrax as they did the strange goat like creatures that wandered too close. Creatures with the lower bodies of men and the upper bodies of various animals wandered the shores of the Sea of Sighs and violent humans with strange deformities inhabited the northern ruins of the cities Mantarys and Viselar. Fire Worms ruled the night on the island which held the city of Valyria. Oros and Tyria were occupied by men and women dying of dragon pox or grayscale as it was better known here in Planetos and though Haedryn had immunity to the disease as a Valyrian the infected had become mad following animal instincts to attack and he hadn’t stayed long in either city.
In Aquos Dhaen, the city that had been ruled by House Belaerys and sat on the largest eastern island in the Smoking Sea, was overrun by strange wyrm like creatures that had no wings and yet had all the form of a dragon including the ability to breathe flame though he saw none that stood taller than six feet. The creatures fled from Terrax however and his pearly dragon seemed to find them a delicacy, hunting them down with extreme prejudice to fill his belly.
Haedryn thoroughly explored the city of Aquos Dhaen, devoting two weeks to it alone. This was due in large part to the fact that it had been his family’s seat of power but also due to the fact that unlike many of the other cities, Terrax was enough to keep the dangerous denizens away. He found one more dragon egg, though it was not viable along with several more Valyrian swords, including one that likely wasn’t of House Belaerys. It was a longsword with a reddish tint to the steel and a pommel fashioned like a roaring lion, a vibrant red stone between its teeth and another set in the hilt. The skeleton that it was attached to had long since been bleached by the sea salt, just as the other twelve skeletons that littered the beach. Unlike everywhere else there were still some tattered remains of cloth, a very faded red in color, and matching the sails of a beached and half collapsed ship. Haedryn could only come to the conclusion that the baker’s dozen of skeletons had belonged to an explorer group that had come to Valyria after the Doom in an effort to explore the islands. They hadn’t survived long, barely even made it halfway up the beach before succumbing to the poison that suffused the air.
He found several more cashes of jewelry, only a few of them made with Valyrian steel, the majority made with silver and gold and dripping with emeralds, green peridot, or jade. One of Haedryn’s favorite finds was a pair of hair combs linked together by four Valyrian steel chains of varying length. Carved from a white marble with pink and gray veins to resemble dragons with spread wings, their eyes polished malachite, the pretty rings of color like iris’ adding to the realism of the carving. He also found a large cache of hair beads, made mostly of carved marbles and dark dragonglass.
From Aquos Dhaen Haedryn moved on to Rhyos which was populated by more of the strange wyrm creatures and where he found more jewelry, a few small valyrian steel weapons; stiletto and rondel daggers, along with a couple of small blades shaped for throwing. There were also many dragon eggs, or rather the remains of eggs. Haedryn found nearly forty eggs in Rhyos but all of them were either fully hatched with the hatchling skeletons nearby or partially hatched the hatchling dead, sometimes only having made it halfway out of the eggs before dying. Then onto Draconys a rather small city on a tiny island on the western edge of the Smoking Sea.
On the small island it became clear was once the seat of power for House Targaryen, the sigil of a three headed hydra-like dragon carved into the central tower of the small dragonglass keep the words Perzys se ānogar or Fire and Blood, curled around it. He found nothing in the keep, it was as though it had been emptied completely before the Doom, like someone had known of what was coming and left before it had happened. House Targaryen had often provided House Belaerys with daughters for their sons when House Belaerys had no daughters of their own. The second and third children of these marriages often remarried back into House Targaryen or occasionally with House Velaryon who also on occasion intermarried with House Targaryen. It would not be completely without question that a Targaryen had inherited the rather strong gift of dragon dreams present in the Belaerys blood, though several other families had the ability as well, and had a premonition of the Doom and convinced their family of the necessity of leaving. Perhaps there were Targaryen’s still living today. They wouldn’t be close in relation, not after so many years has Haedryn had watched the last of House Belaerys perish in his visions of the Doom, but they would be connected to his ancestry, the only living connection beyond Terrax.
Nearly six weeks to the day of Haedryn’s arrival in Planetos found him and Terrax flying westwards along the coast of Essos. From the sparse map that Haedryn had in his head, due to his visions over the years, Haedryn knew they were moving towards Volantis, the First Daughter or rather first colony of Valyria. It was during one of the nights camping on the Demon Road that Haedryn removed his occulumancy necklace. It was unhealthy to continually suppress his gifts and honestly Haedryn should have removed the chain only a month after he’d put it on, but he had not wished to do so while still within the borders of Valyria where even after all this time sacrificial magics heavily saturated everything.
Flames and screams were the first things Haedryn registered as he fell towards a burning keep covered in green flame.
“Wyrd Breaker!” the raven screamed as it dove towards his falling body. Haedryn twisted trying to right himself. His hands and feet did little to help him to stop falling and Haedryn forced his perception to change. This was his dream and even if he couldn’t control what he would see he could control himself. Suddenly he was standing firmly on the ground though chaos reigned around him. The keep in flames was behind him and lit up the evening. A silver blonde haired woman screamed where she lay upon a white cloak, her dress up past her knees as what seemed to be two ladies maids hovered over her. It was clear she was giving birth. The raven didn’t give Haedryn a chance to continue taking in the situation around him as it dive bombed him.
Haedryn ran to the only place he was sure the raven wouldn’t follow, the burning keep. It was a dangerous thing to do, Haedryn might be more resistant to heat and fire than the average person, but even in his dreams he was not immune to fire, especially a fire such as this. He couldn’t stay long, but then he didn’t need to. Carefully and quickly Haedryn grasped at slat of burning wood and raced back out of the keep, he kept one eye on the sky and the other on the people around him, though he knew none of them could actually see him. As he smacked at the raven with his makeshift torch, he saw a dwarf woman, weeping over the half burnt corpse of what had once been a beautiful woman.
His makeshift torch connected with the body of the three eyed raven on his second swing, a dull thud sounding as feathers caught aflame. The raven screamed and disappeared. Haedryn dropped the burning wood just as the green flame reached Haedryn’s fingers. Hissing as flesh bubbled from the supernatural heat of the fire, Haedryn brought forth his ice powers to quell the flame, sighing with relief. The wail of a babe pulled Haedryn’s attention back to the woman who had first caught his attention in the dream. The silver blond woman was holding a bloody newborn as a man, truly little more than child himself, not that the woman could be much older than seventeen, in yellow livery with a black stag rampant, cut the umbilical cord with his belt knife.
“You Burn in the Dark to Be the Light,” a female voice said beside him Haedryn. He turned and looked down, the dwarf woman was standing beside him staring up at him, speaking to him. That was something that should be impossible and yet it was happening. “But this Dragon is born in Blood and Fire.” Haedryn caught a glimpse of the babe, now wrapped in a black and red cloak, and registered the sigil that was embroidered on the fabric, the three headed hydra dragon of House Targaryen. How fitting that one of its children should come into the world with literal Blood and Fire. The dream changed.
He was in a room, clearly in a keep of some sort, the same woman, older and on a bed this time with attendants and a gray robed man who could only be a Maester hovering around her as she screamed in birthing agony. Haedryn watched as she brought forth another child for House Targaryen and then the dream changed again.
A frail woman, whose pregnancy only made her look even more delicate, screamed as she brought for a girl child to the world the keep around them the same red stone as his second dream, neither her nor the child had silver blond hair but before the dream changed a silver haired valyrian man burst into the room looking joyful as the child loudly cried.
The same woman, just as frail, but almost more sickly this go around, screamed in pain as she arched. The keep around them was dark stone, dragonglass, and the valyrian man was holding her hand as the Maester, a different Maester than the one before, worked between her legs. Another male was brought into the world, this one as white blond as his father.
Then Haedryn was back at a tower he’d seen in his first dream on Planetos. Sandy colored and surrounded by desert sands, Haedryn found himself standing at the towers entrance looking over three white cloaked men milled uselessly outside while a woman, the girl he’d seen in his previous dream screamed out her birthing pain. He took the steps two at a time as he raced up the tower. The poor girl was all but alone in the room, the other woman puttering near uselessly wetting a cloth and wiping at the girl’s sweaty forehead. The babe she birthed had a head full of dark hair like her own and Haedryn could only assume that he was born to a father of Valyrian blood, most likely as he suspected every child whose birth he’d dreamed of in this dream, was a child of House Targaryen. He only had a few more seconds to observe before he found himself once again in that dark stone dragonglass keep and another Targaryen, a girl child was born. Haedryn could only wonder why he was seeing their births, is he supposed to find them, are their births in the past, the future, the present?
Then suddenly Haedryn was standing on ice in the middle of a frozen lake. He twisted looking for something, anything other than snow or ice. Even now flakes were falling from the overcast sky adding even more snow to the lands that seemed almost perpetually snowy. One side of the frozen lake had a small cliff and atop it stood the only vegetation for miles, a tree, specifically a weirwood tree. Haedryn had seen a few such trees in his dreams, they had a sort of unnerving beauty to them, vivid red leaves and matching sap contrasting the stark white bark of the trunk, a distinct picture.
He stepped towards it and as his foot came down the ice beneath it cracked. Haedryn froze. A second crack, louder and longer than the first and Haedryn was off. His leather boots barely had any grip on the snowy ice but he fought to stay ahead of the cracking ice as hard as he could. The raven, feather’s fire singed and tattered but still mostly intact, had returned, aiming at the back of Haedryn’s legs trying to trip him up. He stumbled once, but was quick to push himself back to his feet and continue running. A second time and then a third and Haedryn had had enough. Whoever this goddamn raven was, it was time it knew exactly who Haedryn was and who Haedryn was bonded too. With a roar of rage Haedryn felt the transformation come over him, white scale overtook pale skin, a talon filled leap into the air and a downstroke of wings had him above the ice with only seconds to spare as across the lake the ice shattered and began to sink under the water as dead hands grasped at ice chunks trying to pull themselves up out of the frigid waters.
It was difficult to outmaneuver the raven in the sky as a several thousand tonne lizard but Haedryn had always enjoyed flight and was quickly wheeling and twisting around to snap at the bird. With no real worry for collateral damage Haedryn had no worries about breathing flame. Some of his fire hit the dead that were clambering out of the water, creating moving torches as the flame burned right through them.
“You won’t stop them,” the raven cawed. “My family threw me away after I gave all of myself to keep them safe and on the Iron Throne. I will have my revenge and you will not stop me Wyrd Breaker!! The dead and its kings shall rise and I shall be its GOD!!” Ice began to form on Haedryn’s wings making it more difficult for him to remain in the air. He fought with each flap of his wings to keep in the air but slowly and surely the ice coating his wings, becoming thicker with each second began to weigh him down. With every wingstroke he actually got lower and lower until he could feel the splash of water on his tail as the dead thrashed at the surface trying to get atop the floating chunks of ice. With seconds to spare Haedryn wrenched himself from the dream.
Haedryn jerked into an upright sitting position as he woke up. Fingers scrambled as he hastily put the pendant back around his neck. The raven was clearly far more powerful than Haedryn had first thought, and had goals which seemed to require Haedryn’s death. He’d come to this world seeking his familiar bond and peace, he had found his familiar, or rather they’d found each other, but peace it seemed was going to take a while.